Footloose and fancy-free, the elephant whose landmine injury has been fixed with a fake leg

It may not be very elegant, but this fake leg is just the thing for a war-wounded elephant.

Baby elephant Mocha is pictured being fitted with the jumbo prosthetic after she stepped on a landmine in Burma and lost her foot.

If the shoe fits: Mocha's new leg is attached by hospital founder Soraida Salwala, crouching

The patching-up of the pachyderm was carried out by staff at the Friends of the Asian Elephant Hospital in Lampang, northern Thailand.

Mocha received her false leg three years after vets at the hospital pioneered the procedure on a 440-year-old adult elephant, Motala, who had lost his leg in a landmine blast while working at a logging camp.

With the wide use of the massive beasts as draft animals in Thailand, the Lampang hospital has treated thousands of elephants for various ailments.

Soraida comforts the wounded baby elephant

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Footloose and fancy-free, the elephant whose landmine injury has been fixed with a fake leg